M7 Motorway Upgrade

richiek83

I had a feeling that at some stage in the future, an upgrade to three lanes would be required between Maudlins Interchange and the M7/ M9 turn off. It does appear however that it seems to be on the NRA's list of Schemes. I have copied and pasted the information below from the NRA's website. It's only at constrainst study stage. Me thinks that at it is a number of years away yet. Current AADT levels on this section are running at almost 60,000 vehicles a day.

N7 Naas Newbridge Bypass Upgrade

Local Authority: Kildare County CouncilStart County: KildareEnd County: KildareDescription: Upgrade of the M7 from the existing M7/M9 intersection at Greatconnell up to and including the Maudlins Interchange at Naas. Upgrade to include for widening existing carriageway plus associated works, to provide 3 lanes in each direction to current NRA standards.Mainline Length (km): 13Current Project Phase: Constraints StudyMajor Inter-urban Route: Yes
Indicates the scheme is on one of the five major inter-urban routes (Dublin to Belfast, Dublin to Cork , Dublin to Galway, Dublin to Limerick, Dublin to Waterford)
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L1011

The way things are going, even if we get back to 'the good times' by 2011 theres nearly a decades worth of schemes further progressed - will be towards 2020 before this is done.

But yes, its needed, particularly with the N9 becoming M9 and the almost certain increase in traffic along that route as a result which will be spilling on to the N7.

richiek83

Totally agree with you on that point, more than likely towards the latter half of the next decade. Traffic speeds during rush hour at present on this stretch range from between 40 to 50 mph or in kilometres 60-80.

If the DOOR is put on the long finger, maybe we might see it sooner? Wouldn't hold my breath for either though

Chris_533976

Thats a new one on there. Can you give a link to it, I cant find it on there.

richiek83

This is the link below.

http://www.nra.ie/RoadSchemeActivity/KildareCountyCouncil/N7NaasNewbridgeBypassUpgrade/SchemeName,15698,en.html

Amtmann

It's here Chris: http://www.nra.ie/RoadSchemeActivity/KildareCountyCouncil/N7NaasNewbridgeBypassUpgrade/SchemeName,15698,en.html

First I've heard of it too...

mysterious

The curragh interchange = knocking
Naas Mauldins interhchage refitting (if the adjacent pillars can be taken out and put in the centre)

every bridge on the Naas bypass needs knocking.


Also the road needs to be 3 lane as far as Kildare IMO. Make these words. Especially when all the inter urbans finish. The kildare section handles 35,000 cars a day. Two years when the Inter urbans finish it will reach at least 45,000. I think it would be cost benificial in the long run to stretch the upgrade as far as kildare.

If I was to be very ambitous all the way to Portlaoise, but hey we live in Ireland where we have lots of forward planning eh.....

DWCommuter

mysterious wrote: »

The curragh interchange = knocking
Naas Mauldins interhchage refitting (if the adjacent pillars can be taken out and put in the centre)

every bridge on the Naas bypass needs knocking.


Also the road needs to be 3 lane as far as Kildare IMO. Make these words. Especially when all the inter urbans finish. The kildare section handles 35,000 cars a day. Two years when the Inter urbans finish it will reach at least 45,000. I think it would be cost benificial in the long run to stretch the upgrade as far as kildare.

If I was to be very ambitous all the way to Portlaoise, but hey we live in Ireland where we have lots of forward planning eh.....

I'd tend to agree with that. Furthermore this widening should have been done in tandem with the N7 widening. The bottle neck between Naas and M9 junction is beyond a joke. One would wonder if they knew the original M7 (Naas bypass) wasn't built with retrofitting in mind, hence it will be a huge job.

L1011

DWCommuter wrote: »

I'd tend to agree with that. Furthermore this widening should have been done in tandem with the N7 widening. The bottle neck between Naas and M9 junction is beyond a joke. One would wonder if they knew the original M7 (Naas bypass) wasn't built with retrofitting in mind, hence it will be a huge job.

The N7 widening was only really a rush job to get it done for the Ryder Cup though; they'd not have got that done in time if they had to plan the rest of the route... we only got it in in time due to the Ryder Cup being pushed a year further out because of 9/11 anyway!

But yes, ideally it'd all have been done at once. I don't think the Nass Bypass not being designed to take a third lane is a serious lack of forward planning seeing as it opened 25 years ago; nobody could ever have planned for the kind of growth we've had since then.

mysterious - isn't the Curragh interchange actually beyond the N9 diverge?

DWCommuter

MYOB wrote: »

The N7 widening was only really a rush job to get it done for the Ryder Cup though; they'd not have got that done in time if they had to plan the rest of the route... we only got it in in time due to the Ryder Cup being pushed a year further out because of 9/11 anyway!

But yes, ideally it'd all have been done at once. I don't think the Nass Bypass not being designed to take a third lane is a serious lack of forward planning seeing as it opened 25 years ago; nobody could ever have planned for the kind of growth we've had since then.

mysterious - isn't the Curragh interchange actually beyond the N9 diverge?

Well you hit some serious nails on the head there. Similar to the people on the Straffan road who campaigned tirelessly for basic road improvements and got them many, many years later due to a bunch of knobs and their 6 irons! As for forward planning on the original Naas bypass......its a debatable topic alright, but personally I do not accept the argument in relation to growth forecasts. The Naas bypass and the Stillorgan dual carraigeway are prime examples of Irish gombeenism and lack of basic commonsense. The M50 is just an example of pure stupidity years later. Add to that the original debacle of 30m trams on the luas red line and we can quickly realise that we are taking far far too long to grasp the concept of future growth that starts to happen as we talk about projects for too long and then go and build them as planned despite the changes in demand occuring during the planning process. Sorry, but Im just picky on this issue wheather its 1980 or 2008.

Lennoxschips

We've built the motorway, now it's full, let's make it bigger!

I remember when I was a kid, I used to try and dig a hole near the water at the beach. Every time I shoveled out the water it would fill up again. That never deterred me though.

Dig on!

Amtmann

Whaddya recommend?

L1011

Actually, while they're at it they could prepare the Maudlin's Interchange for the eventual addition of the M7->M50 (which I know is about as likely to get built as the estate of CJ Haughey repaying the state...) to prevent having even more carnage again in 15 years time.

Zoney

Lennoxschips wrote: »

We've built the motorway, now it's full, let's make it bigger!

I remember when I was a kid, I used to try and dig a hole near the water at the beach. Every time I shoveled out the water it would fill up again. That never deterred me though.

Dig on!

A three lane motorway into the capital is not exactly insane levels of road building - only compared to the goat tracks we put up with for decades.

An unrelated aside - do folks think the wear+tear on vehicles, the repairs needed, the costs of accidents, lost time, etc. cost more than any extra taxes that would need to be raised to pay for decent roads on the rest of the network? Was thinking about this as I had the teeth rattled out of me on what looks like a nice shiney new bus Eireann bus, but presumably has had more wear and tear than an equivalent aged vehicle on the continent.

I would ask a similar question for all kinds of other barely funded essential areas of our State. Do we end up paying more for wanting to have low taxes?

BluntGuy

Time for a mega-reply...

Lennoxschips wrote:

We've built the motorway, now it's full, let's make it bigger!

Sounds like a plan...

MYOB wrote:

The way things are going, even if we get back to 'the good times' by 2011 theres nearly a decades worth of schemes further progressed - will be towards 2020 before this is done.

Sadly, 'the good times' won't be coming back within the next ten years, so I'd wager that sometime after 2020 will be when this scheme finally gets the go-ahead.

DWCommuter wrote:

...we talk about projects for too long and then go and build them as planned despite the changes in demand occuring during the planning process.

Hit the nail on the end. And that's exactly what's going to happen with Metro North being built as a medium-capacity system when high-capacity is needed (and would have only had a modest effect on the cost as the majority of money is pumped into the tunnel boring).

mysterious - isn't the Curragh interchange actually beyond the M9 diverge?

Yes it is. I also changed the "N" in your sentence to "M". I think people need to get in the habit of getting the road names right because the NRA seems to think it can get away with calling roads "N" and "M" periodically.

mysterious wrote:

Also the road needs to be 3 lane as far as Kildare IMO. Make these words. Especially when all the inter urbans finish. The kildare section handles 35,000 cars a day. Two years when the Inter urbans finish it will reach at least 45,000. I think it would be cost benificial in the long run to stretch the upgrade as far as kildare.

I agree with your point, but I don't think traffic will increase that much in such a short space of time. Give it maybe five-to-ten years. And don't forget that 45,000 is still within the 52,000 capacity that D2M roads have.

But yes, I think a three-lane upgrade (90,000 AADT) will be necessary in the not-so-distant future.

mysterious wrote:

If I was to be very ambitous all the way to Portlaoise, but hey we live in Ireland where we have lots of forward planning eh.....

I had a similar thought the other day, D3M up until the M8 diverge. Of course, this is where the narrow-median motorway between Portlaoise and M8 junction falls flat on its face with virtually no room to upgrade.

L1011

BluntGuy wrote: »

Sadly, 'the good times' won't be coming back within the next ten years, so I'd wager that sometime after 2020 will be when this scheme finally gets the go-ahead.

I'm an optomist when it comes to this - need to be to balance my extreme pessimism about everything else

BluntGuy

MYOB wrote: »

I'm an optomist when it comes to this - need to be to balance my extreme pessimism about everything else

I'm afraid the chronic mis-management of this country and its resources leaves me with very little hope, even if there is an up-turn. What's to stop our ignorant masses voting FF in again just to create the same mess?

BluntGuy

Extract from my latest e-mail to the NRA:

Question:

There has been rumour of delay on the M7 Nenagh-Limerick stretch. Is this true? If so, what is the delay being caused by, when well it be resolved and will it affect the scheduled opening of the stretch in Q2 2009?

The contractual completion date for the M7 Nenagh to Limerick road scheme remains at Quarter 2, 2009, however as with all construction contracts, certain events may lead to extensions of time on this date.

Question:

The Nenagh bypass has a motorway order now attached. But is it legally motorway at this moment in time?

The Motorway Declarations recently approved by the Minister for Transport for the Nenagh - Limerick section will become operable on completion of the works and the erection of the statutory motorway signage.

Hope that helps...